SO Pat Burns was absent from yesterday’s morning skate at the Meadowlands. Of course he was, for the coach was instead at his team’s West Orange practice rink with Scott Stevens, secretly preparing the captain for a dramatic return for last night’s Game 3 against the Flyers. Of course he wasn’t.

The possibility of Stevens’ return casts a significant shadow over every day of the playoffs. The Devils’ management is all but mum on the subject, refusing to either rule in or rule out a dramatic comeback from what has reached a three-month convalescence from post-concussion symptoms. The Devils’ players, annoyed at repeated questions on the matter, proclaim that Stevens is not coming back to rescue them, and ask for the queries to cease.

With the Devils entering last night’s match in a 2-0 hole the franchise has faced only once since winning its first Cup in 1995 – that coming two years ago in an eventual six-game, first-round loss to Carolina with a sick-in-spirit team coached by Kevin Constantine following Larry Robinson’s mid-season dismissal – here’s the thing about a hypothetical Stevens’ return:

If the players believe the Captain might be able to return later in this series or later in these playoffs, then the mindset for last night would have been far more positive than with the players honestly knowing for sure that Stevens is done for the year. Because success in New Jersey is achieved only in concert with when measurements are taken for Stanley Cup rings.

When a team such as the Devils – or their Western counterpart, the Red Wings – falls behind 2-0 in an opening series, Game 3 isn’t so much about making technical adjustments or about the goaltender making the big save, or even so much about the commitment necessary to overcome the deficit by winning the required four of the following five games. Rather, it’s about the team’s faith that it can win not four games, but 16.

The Devils really haven’t played well enough since December to be considered a credible upper-echelon contender for the Cup. But December is when Stevens’ game began to slip. Were he somehow to come back now and play capably, were he to give his teammates not only his inspiration and presence in the room, but presence on the ice, the equation would change dramatically. So what do the Devils really know, or do they know as little as everyone else?

Since the NHL went to a conference-based tournament in 1994, the 1995 fifth-seeded Devils are the only team to win the Cup by emerging from the lower half of the draw. That team is also the only team in NHL history to win the Cup by starting on the road in four best-of-seven rounds. Does this team believe it’s good enough without Stevens to match that history by coming out of the six-hole?

The Devils played into June again last year for the third time in four seasons. They had played 82 postseason games – a whole extra full season of playoff games – from 2000 through 2003. That extracts a toll. When a team believes it can win, it drives through the EZ-Pass lane from one round to the next. But if there are doubts, the toll becomes too expensive, and the vehicle looks for a short cut.

Last night was about whether the Devils are going to be willing to pay, or whether they were looking for a way out.